Hunting with dogs: consultation analysis

2. Description of the responses and respondents

2.1 This chapter provides information about the respondents to the consultation and the responses submitted.

Number of responses received, and number included in the analysis

2.2 The consultation received a total of 13,331 submissions. The majority (10,734, 81%) were received via Citizen Space, the Scottish Government's web-based consultation platform, while the remainder (2,597, 19%) were received by email or post (Table 2.1).

Responses removed from the analysis database

2.3 Four types of response were removed prior to analysis. These were: (i) campaign responses, (ii) multiple responses submitted by a single respondent, (iii) responses in unreadable file formats, and (iv) correspondence not intended as responses to the consultation.

Campaign responses

2.4 Several organisations encouraged their members and supporters to submit responses to this consultation. Organisations assisted their members and supporters either by providing suggested responses to each question, or by providing a 'commentary' on the consultation and / or the consultation questions.

2.5 In some cases, responses replicated, verbatim, – in whole or in part – the template response provided by a campaign organiser. These responses are referred to as 'campaign responses'. Altogether, the consultation received 3,106 campaign responses.

2.6 The views expressed in these campaigns / campaign responses are discussed in the analysis which follows in this report. However, given that they are identical, these responses are simply counted and then removed from the analysis database. Thus, campaign responses are not included in the tables shown throughout this report.

2.7 In other cases, people drew on the material provided by the campaign(s) to draft their own (personalised) responses to the consultation. The views expressed in these personalised responses are treated like any other substantive response, and are included in the tables shown throughout this report.

2.8 Further details about the campaign responses are given at paragraph 2.18 to 2.22 below.

Multiple responses from a single respondent

2.9 A total of 404 respondents (including 5 organisations) submitted more than one response to the consultation. Most of these (384 respondents) submitted 2 responses. In addition, 17 respondents submitted 3 responses, and 3 respondents submitted 4 responses.

2.10 In the case of individuals, one of their responses was selected at random to be included in the analysis. However, if this random process resulted in the selection of a campaign response, the campaign response was removed and the personalised response was retained. If both (or all) the individual's responses were campaign responses, all were removed from the analysis database, but one was counted among the total number of campaign responses received.

2.11 Multiple responses submitted by organisations were either duplicates, with one response being submitted through Citizen Space and one by email, or the email response contained additional material. In all cases, organisational responses were examined and all of the material in their multiple responses was amalgamated into a single response which was retained for the analysis.

2.12 This process resulted in the removal of 427 responses from the analysis database.

Responses in unreadable file formats and / or correspondence

2.13 Eight (8) further responses were excluded from the analysis. These comprised one response in the form of a short film, three (3) responses submitted in unreadable file formats and four (4) email messages that were found to be correspondence rather than responses to the consultation.^[3] In all cases, these submissions were highlighted to the Scottish Government policy team.

Number of substantive responses included in the analysis

2.14 Table 2.2 provides an overview of the responses received and removed, and the final number of substantive responses included in the analysis.

2.15 Thus, 9,790 substantive responses are included in the analysis presented in this report. The quantitative analysis, presented in tables throughout the report, is based on these substantive responses.

About the respondents (substantive responses only)

2.16 Substantive responses were received from 9,742 individuals and 48 organisations or groups (Table 2.3).

Organisational respondents

2.17 The 48 organisational respondents to the consultation were categorised as shown in Table 2.4. The largest category of respondents was that of animal welfare and animal rights organisations or groups, accounting for half (50%) of all organisations (24 out of 48). Countryside management, sporting organisations and their representative bodies comprised 44% of organisations (21 out of 48). The remaining three organisations were categorised as 'other organisation types'. A complete list of organisational respondents is provided in Annex 1 of this report.^[4]

* Includes two public sector organisations and one local branch of a political organisation.

Campaign respondents

2.18 As noted above, a number of organisations encouraged their members and supporters to submit responses to the consultation. Organisations assisted their members and supporters by either providing suggested responses to each question, or by providing a 'commentary' on the consultation and the consultation questions which people could draw on in drafting their own responses to the consultation.

2.19 The campaign responses received were associated with six different campaigns. Campaigns were organised by the following four organisations:

• British Association for Shooting and Conservation
• Keep the Ban
• OneKind
• Scottish Countryside Alliance.

2.20 It was not possible to identify the originators of two further campaigns identified among the responses – these are referred to in the table below as the 'Lobby Network' campaign^[5] and the 'Postal' campaign.^[6]

2.21 Table 2.5 provides a brief overview of each of the campaigns.

2.22 Further information on all six campaigns, including text and commentary, is provided at Annex 2.

Response rates for individual questions

2.23 Annex 3 shows the number of responses received at each question. It should be noted that where a question invited comments, the comments made often included general statements that were not directly relevant to the question under consideration.

2.24 Most of the closed questions in the consultation were answered by more than 95% of all respondents. The exceptions were in relation to Questions 7 and 10, which concerned the definitions of a 'wild mammal' and 'pest species' and were addressed to a subset of respondents.

2.25 The open questions at Questions 7 and 10 had the lowest response rates (14% and 17% respectively). As will be discussed in Chapter 5, respondents may have found these questions confusing.